Chapter 5: USING UDL TO SET CLEAR GOALS

Introduction: Amber

Setting clear goals for students- first step of teaching

• Allows teachers to determine the best methods and materials for reaching the objective
• Enables teachers to appropriately assess students success

Goals should not be highly specific

• Limits the possibility for strategies to reach the goal
• Limits creativity
• Limits number of people who can achieve goal

Clearly communicated goals helps supports all three brain networks by helping students know exactly what they are supposed to do, how to do it, and why it is of importance

Common Standards, Diverse Student Needs: Amber

Standards- express what schools value and determine what teacher should teach and assess.
Strengths of standards:

• Focus on “learning how to learn”
• Students gain knowledge, skills, and understanding
• Allow for teachers to create goals and individualize the means for attaining to them

Cons of standards:

• Lead teachers to decrease their focus on true understanding
• Students acquire factual knowledge but not the meaning and importance of what they have studied
• Doesn’t allow for flexibility
• Teaching to the test

Teachers who have access to only a few tools and methods for teaching and assessing learning naturally tend to define goals that are closely tied to methods
UDL offers educators practical guidance for reconciling common standards with diverse needs
Use UDL framework to:

• Structure our analysis of the nature of a standard, goal, or unit of curriculum so that we can determine its true purpose, then separate the desired outcome from the means to attain it
• Guide selection and assembly of flexible media and materials that can support diverse pathways to the goal for different students.
• Help us communicate goals and means to students so they know what they are doing, how they might do it, and why it is important

Work Cited: Goals picture

Applying UDL to Separate Goals from Methods: Katie

1. Purpose of standards can be analyzed by considering whether it is about learning information, learning skills or processes, or considering one’s affect or engagement
2. “Although pursuing goals involves the whole brain, most learning goals do tend to fall primarily into the domain of one brain network”
3. When one knows which network is the focus of a goal, one understands the true purpose. In addition, one can see what aspects must be constant and which should be varied to account for individual student differences.

Network Goals	Purpose or Meaning Behind Goal	Example
Recognition Goals	Identify who, what, when, and where. This is the “what” of learning.	Know location of places, geographic features, and patterns of the environment
Strategic Goals	Learning the process behind a certain skill. This is the “how” of learning.	Demonstrate competence in the general skills for reading a variety of literary texts
Affective Goals	Related to one’s affect. This is the “why” of learning.	Enjoy, appreciate, and use mathematics

Applying UDL to Reframe Standards as Clear Classroom Goals: Katie

1. “By reframing goals to allow for multiple media and means for expression and engagement, we can offer more palatable options for all students.”
2. In setting goals, it is important to avoid too much specification.
3. It is also important that we give students different supports in which they can pursue goals in their own ways.
4. “With a diverse array of resources and a steady focus on the true goal, achieving flexibility in means and methods is relatively straightforward.”
5. In other words, one will alter the product, process, and content of learning to meet the needs of all learners.

CAST Resources:
Goal Setter
Tool Kit

The UDL Framework Individualize Scaffolds and Performance Criteria: Matthew

ž Students may become bored or not motivated if their work is either too challenging or too easy. To avoid this, teachers should try to make activities/lessons work to each students recognition, strategic, and affective networks. Vygostky’s concept of the zone of proximal development will help teachers create lessons that work for many different learning styles/levels.
ž When a student is engaged, they may reach a state of “flow”. In this state, students are developing skills as they work. With this, the students are performing just above their level of competence. This has them problem solving and developing and enhancing their skills while not being too difficult.

A Shared Understandig of Goals:Matthew

ž It is important to set goals for you lesson that each child can achieve. You start by identifying which standard is going to be obtained through the lesson. You then create a goal for the whole class which contains the standard. The teacher will then think about his/her students levels of recognition, strategy, and affective network. The teacher will work with the materials and make sure that they are appropriate for the students in the classroom.
ž Making sure that you have clear goals for students is important. You want them to be able to monitor their own growth and struggles.
ž Having a curriculum sets more direct goals for the students, but having a UDL based classroom which incorporates media and technology, it is important for the students to know how to operate, and what they are expected to do/get from it.

Applying New Media to Support Clear and Appropriate Goals: Meghan

• CAST eTrekker project: prototype learning tools

• Multiple Recognition Pathways

Ex. Text/Speech presentation, Search display formats

• Multiple Strategic Pathways

Screen helps, "Breadcrumb trail“

• Multiple Affective Pathways

Interactive, Playful language, Simple layout


• Students will:
Work to improve certain strategic skills
Students will encounter different challenges

• Example:

	Student A	Student B
Challenges	Organizing Self-monitoring	Text-wary Low confidence
Support	Structure and direction	Text-support Simple format Step-by-step breakdown

The Value of UDL in Goalsetting: Meghan

Next step? Instruction and guidance from teacher